malevolence

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Ill will

Nouns

1. malevolence; evil or bad intent; misanthropy, ill nature, cynicism; enmity, hate; malignity, malice, malice aforethought, maliciousness, spite, resentment, venom, rancor, bitterness; virulence, spleen, mordacity, acerbity, churlishness, hardness of heart, obduracy; ill treatment; cruelty, cruelness, brutality, savagery, ferocity, barbarity, barbarism, inhumanity, man's inhumanity to man; sadism, torture; Schadenfreude; truculence, ruffianism; heart of stone, evil eye, cloven foot or hoof, poison pen; sexual harassment. See evil.

2. ill or bad turn; affront (see disrespect).

3. misanthrope, misanthropist, man-hater, misogynist, woman-hater, gay-basher, cynic; sadist. Slang, skunk, sky, bad actor, saw.

Verbs

1. bear or harbor a grudge, bear malice.

2. hurt, injure, harm, wrong, do harm; malign, molest (see discontent); wreak havoc, do mischief, hunt down, hound, persecute, oppress, grind, maltreat, mistreat, bedevil, ill-treat, abuse, misuse, ill-use, do one's worst, show or have no mercy; dehumanize. Informal, have it in for. Slang, do one dirt, rub it in, do a number on, dump on, fuck around with, cheese off, mess with, get on one's case.

Adjectives

1. malevolent, ill-disposed, ill-intentioned, evil-minded, misanthropic, malicious, malign, malignant, rancorous, spiteful, caustic, bitter, mordant, acrimonious, virulent, malefic, maleficent, venomous, invidious. Slang, jive-ass, on the rag.

2. unkind, unfriendly, antisocial; cold-blooded, coldhearted, hardhearted, stony-hearted, selfish, unnatural, ruthless, relentless. See discourtesy, selfishness.

3. cruel, brutal, savage, ferocious, inhuman, sadistic, barbarous, fell, truculent, bloodthirsty, murderous, atrocious, fiendish, heinous, unrelenting, demoniacal, diabolic[al], devilish, infernal, hellish, Satanic.

Quotations — He has enough of misanthropy to be a philanthropist (Walter Bagehot), Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn! (Robert Burns), Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside itself (George Eliot), Cynicism is intellectual dandyism without the coxcomb's feathers (George Meredith), [A cynic is] a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing (Oscar Wilde), Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth (Lillian Hellman), Man delights not me; no, nor woman either (Shakespeare), If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man (Mark Twain).

Antonyms, see benevolence.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. ill will, enmity, indignity; see evil 1 , hate , hatred 1 , 2 , malice , resentment .

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun A desire to harm others or to see others suffer: despitefulness, ill will, malice, maliciousness, malignancy, malignity, meanness, nastiness, poisonousness, spite, spitefulness, venomousness, viciousness. See ATTITUDE.